CHAP. VI. ERUPTIONS OF COTOPAXI IN 1877. 125 



it is the best recorded one that has occurred, I propose to refer 

 to it before proceeding with my narrative. 



In the earlier part of 1877 a rather unusual degree of 

 activity was manifested by Cotopaxi, and columns of smoke 

 (composed of fine dust, which is commonly termed volcanic ash) 

 rose sometimes a thousand feet above the cone, and at night the 

 steam and smoke that issued was brilliantly illuminated by 

 flames or incandescent matter within the crater. The dust was 

 carried in this or that direction according to the prevailing 

 winds, and much fell at Machachi and its neighbourhood.^ No 

 alarm seems to have been caused until June 25, when, soon 

 after mid-day, an immense black column was projected about 

 twice the height of the cone (say, 18,000 feet) in the air, and 

 was accompanied by tremendous subterranean bellowing. This 

 eruption was clearly seen from Quito and Latacunga, as the 

 wind blew the ash towards the Pacific, and left the view of the 

 mountain from north and south unobscured.^ The summit 

 glowed at night, but next morning its appearance was normal 

 until 6.30 a.m., when another enormous column rose from the 

 crater. This time the ejected matter first drifted due north, 

 spreading out to the north-west and north-east, and subse- 

 quently was diffused by other winds all over the country. In 

 Quito it began to be dusk about 8 a.m., and the darkness 

 increased in intensity until mid-day, when it was like night. 

 One man informed me that he wished to return home, but 

 could not perceive his own door^ when immediately opposite to 



^ Shewing a prevalence of south-east winds. 



2 The first intelligence of this eruption reached Europe through the ejected 

 matter falling upon steamers passing between Panama and Guayaquil, at a dis- 

 tance of nearly two hundred miles from the mountain. 



^ The darkness was caused by the prodigious quantity of dust that was float- 

 ing in the atmosphere. I found at Quito a person who had had the sagacity to 

 spread out a sheet of paper to receive the particles as they settled, and I secured 

 this collection. Some are as large as "007 to "008 of an inch in diameter, 

 though many are much smaller. This dust has been described by Prof. Bonuey 

 in the Proceedinga of the Royal Society, June, 1884. 



